Publisher Conde Nast is continuing to use the powerful camera of the iPhone 7 Plus to its advantage in important areas of its publications, with two magazines using photographs generated by Apple-produced smartphone for their cover shots.

Conde Nast Traveler's 21st annual Hot List Awards issue features an image of a small boat on a beach in St. Barts. The image for the May issue highlights the iPhone 7's Portrait mode, which uses a depth-of-field effect to keep objects in the foreground sharp while applying a "bokeh" blur to the background.

It is claimed this is the first instance of a travel publication cover being shot using an iPhone 7 Plus.

The other magazine using the iPhone for its cover is Bon Appetit, with its Travel issue featuring a portrait of a woman with a blue background. For the shot, the magazine's creative director Alex Grossman explored Oaxaca, Mexico's Tlacolula Market, to find an ideal location and subject.

Photographers Peden + Munk were chosen to shoot the cover, said to have been selected for having an adventurous style that works well within Bon Appetit's pages.

"The iPhone lens is how we look at photography now," said Grossman. "It changes the whole process and feel of a photo shoot, making it more intimate, less invasive, more nimble. We wanted to create something our readers would relate to."

"This is technology completely changing how the publishing and design industries are moving forward," Grossman adds.

This is not the first time that iPhones have been used in a major way in magazines. Last year, Bon Appetit experimented by shooting the magazine's entire issue using iPhones, with photographers exchanging their heavy camera bags for a pared-down equipment list.

At the time, the photographers noted a number of benefits to working with iPhones, with Daymon Gardner calling it "liberating" to use, while Michael Graydon suggested shooting on the iPhone forces photographers to let go of their "ego," losing the "intense and professional" appearance associated with a DSLR camera.

There were some negatives to be found as well, with Matt Haas believing he looked like a "tourist gone rogue," while Cait Oppermann said she "felt like a creep" photographing people with a smartphone while they waited in line. Even so, the experience left the photography team with positive experiences of working professionally with an iPhone for a camera.